Bman's Blues Report

Louis Hall Nelson (September 17, 1902 – April 5, 1990) was a New Orleans jazz trombonist. Louis Nelson was born on September 17, 1902 at 1419-21 Touro St. in New Orleans, LA. His father, Dr. George Harry Nelson, was a medical doctor. Dr. Nelson helped organize the 9th Louisiana Volunteers and served in the Spanish-American War. He was commissioned as first lieutenant. During the war he served in Cuba and also stormed San Juan Hill. His mother, Anna Hattie Adams Nelson, was a teacher and pianist from Springfield, Massachusetts. She was a descendant of runaway slaves from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She was a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music. His mother moved to Louisiana to teach where she met his father. They had three children: Mary Nelson Welch, George Harry Nelson Jr. and Louis Hall Nelson. Both parents and his sister played the piano. His brother played the saxophone. In December 1902, his parents moved to Napoleonville, Louisiana because his father couldn't g...

Adolphe Paul Barbarin (May 5, 1899 – February 17, 1969) was a New Orleans jazz drummer, usually regarded (along with Baby Dodds) as one of the very best of the pre-Big Band era jazz drummers. He studied under the famed drummer, Louis Cottrell, Sr. Paul Barbarin's year of birth is often given as 1901, but his brother Louis Barbarin (born 1902) said he was quite sure that Paul was several years older than he was, and Paul Barbarin simply refused to answer the year of his birth in an interview at Tulane's Jazz Archives. From the late 1910s on, Barbarin divided his time between Chicago, New York City and New Orleans, and touring with such bands as those of Joe "King" Oliver, Luis Russell, Louis Armstrong, and Henry Red Allen. From the 1950s on he usually led his own band. He, along with Louis Cottrell, Jr. founded and led the second incarnation of the Onward Brass Band from 1960 to 1969. Barbarin was an accomplished and knowledgeable musician, a member of ASCAP, and...